Drain the cup

Question Results

Nemorino in Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore gets a little tipsy on what he thinks is a love potion. What does he actually drink?

Response:

Rum

Wine

Feedback:

Correct! He's drinking wine which he's been sold as a love potion from a visiting quack doctor.

Whiskey

Score 1 of 1

Question:

Which acclaimed German tenor, who died tragically young in 1966, allegedly used to drink a bottle of beer a day 'to help his voice grow'?

Response:

Fritz Wunderlich

Feedback:

Correct! He was perhaps best known for his performances of Mozart operatic roles

Andreas Dippel

Ludwig Suthaus

Score 1 of 1

Question:

In which 1904 opera is Števa, the father of the eponymous heroine's unborn child, firmly told he may not marry her until he has sobered up for a year?

Response:

Dvořák's 'The Jacobin'

Janáček's 'Katya Kabanová'

Janáček's 'Jenůfa'

Feedback:

Correct! The opera is based on the play 'Její pastorkyňa' by Gabriela Preissová

Score 1 of 1

Question:

Which composer asked us to show him the way to the next whiskey bar in 1927?

Response:

Kurt Weill

Feedback:

Correct! The line comes from the 'Alabama Song' which appeared in Weill and Bertolt Brecht's opera 'Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny'

Benjamin Britten

George Gershwin

Score 1 of 1

Question:

Which Russian composer after years of alcoholism, was famously painted looking red-nosed and disheveled by Ilya Repin days before his death in 1881?

Response:

Sergey Rachmaninov

Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov

Modest Musorgsky

Feedback:

Correct! He was, along with Mily Balakirev, César Cui, Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Borodin, one of the group of Russian composers known as 'The Mighty Handful'

Score 0 of 1

Question:

Which composer did his best to ruin Rachmaninov's First Symphony by turning up drunk to conduct the prmiere (or so reckoned Rachmaninov's wife)?

Response:

Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov

César Cui

Feedback:

It was Glazunov, who was a pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov

Alexander Glazunov

Score 1 of 1

Question:

Whose piano music was likened by Liszt to 'a draught of that wine of Cyprus that gives a more instinctive rapidity to all our gestures, a keener point to all our words, a more subtle flame to all our emotions…'?

Response:

Chopin (his Polonaise fantasie, Op. 61)

Feedback:

Correct!

Brahms (his Intermezzos, Op. 117, No. 1)

Beethoven (his 'Moonlight' Piano Sonata, Op. 27, No. 2)

Score 1 of 1

Question:

Which composer, who was eventually prescribed alcohol by his doctor, said 'When I am standing in front of a grand orchestra and have drunk half a bottle of champagne, then I conduct like a young god'?

Response:

Gustav Mahler

Leonard Bernstein

Jean Sibelius

Feedback:

Correct!

Score 0 of 1

Question:

In which musical drama of 1692 is a drunken poet tormented by being pinched by a group of fairies?

Response:

Purcell's 'The Fairy Queen'

Handel's 'Ode for St Cecilia's Day'

Feedback:

It was Purcell's 'The Fairy Queen'. The poet sings 'Fill up the bowl' while the fairies tease him

John Gay's 'The Beggar's Opera'

Score 1 of 1

Question:

Which of Repighi's Roman Trilogy features a drunken reveller at the end?

Response:

Fountains of Rome

Pines of Rome

Roman Festivals

Feedback:

Correct!

Free Newsletter

Email: *

By clicking on the 'Sign Up!' button below, you are agreeing to Classical-music.com's terms & conditions. You can opt-out at any time.

We use cookies to improve your experience of our website. Cookies perform functions like recognising you each time you visit and delivering advertising messages that are relevant to you. Read more here